The Languages of Native North America

A few roots serve either as nouns referring to body parts or as verbs: tu 'wing',
'feather', 'to fly', pen 'tongue', 'to lick'. Noun stems may be compound: tcitci-aqai
'manzanita-water' = 'cider', xuli-teni 'bad-hand' = 'left hand'. Derivational suffixes
include a diminutive (itrt 'man', itri-lla 'boy'), a privative (aquye 'tail', aquye-ckut 'tail-
less'), and others. Nouns carry no distinctions of gender, number, or core case, but
may appear with ablative, instrumental, and/or possessive suffixes.

Verb stems sometimes include number as part of their lexical meaning: -wo- 'for
one to sit', -pat- 'for several to sit'; -mum- 'for one to run', -tcaxis- 'for several to run'.
Verbs contain pronominal affixes that reflect an agent-patient distinction. Participants
initiating actions such as speaking or running, or embodying inherent qualities such
as being fat or good, are specified by verbal prefixes: mi '- got 'you speak', rrd-xun
' you are fat'. Similar prefixes indicate inherent (inalienable) possession on nouns:
mi-po ' your ear'. Participants affected by events like bleeding or dying, or conditions
like being hungry, sick, hot, cold, or wet, are specified by verbal suffixes: la-mipukni

Chimariko 381

* you are weak'. Similar suffixes appear with nouns to indicate accidental (alienable)
possession: masomas- mi four red salmon'. Three persons are distinguished, with
inclusive and exclusive first person, and singular and plural number in first and
second person. In transitive verbs only one participant is specified pronominally: first
or second person agent if present; then first or second person patient; then third
person agent.

A set of instrumental prefixes on verbs contribute meanings like 'with the side of
a long object', Svith a round object', 'with the foot', 'with the hand', and 'by sitting
on': m-Qrklucmu 'knock over with a bat', ni-grklucmu 'knock over with end of pole'.
There is some noun incorporation: apexadjit ' fire he steals', apisuxta ' fire he throws
away' (apu 'fire', -xadj 'steal', -sux 'throw'). Directional suffixes contribute meanings
'down', 'into', 'up', 'apart', 'around', 'towards', 'across', 'out', 'out of, 'through': hu-
tsus- min 'he flies down ', hu-tut -puye 'he flies around ', hu-tsu-sku 'he flies toward '.
Tense/aspect/mode suffixes mark past, present, future, continuative, participials,
habituals, conditionals, dubitatives, desideratives, interrogatives, and negatives.

Mithim, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North
America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.